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Story Arcs
Loto Arc Missionary Saga Loto first appears in the summer woods as she spies on Haydn, the new missionary for her tribe. Irritated with his prejudicial assumptions about her culture, she pretends to know only a little English and proceeds to speak in metaphors and similes, conforming to the "mystical native" stereotype. She experiences a lot of difficulty in adjusting to the missionary's presence and continuously bullies him. Because his purpose is to convert the pagan Veruki Tribe to Christianity, Loto feels threatened by his existence. During the winter, Loto's ex-husband Adrian, an ambassador from the Kingdom, appears in Veruki Territory. He offers her community access to wealth, plumbing, and new technology in exchange for allowing the Kingdom to annex the tribe. Loto refuses, and Adrian warns her that the Kingdom will eventually force the Veruki to convert to an approved religion if they continue to maintain their own territory. To avoid being forced into Christianity, Loto challenges the ambassador to a fight. If she wins, she gets to have one year to choose an approved religion. If she loses, she'll allow the Kingdom to convert the tribe to whatever religion it chooses. Loto wins the fight, inadvertently forcing Haydn to join her on her quest to find a new, approved religion. While driving out of the Veruki Territory, Loto and Haydn are stopped by a group of Islamic extremists who threaten to kill them for violating Sharia Law. After Haydn tricks them into believing that he is attempting to tame a "wild Veruki," Loto beats up the terrorists, and they escape deeper into the nation of Fadil where they meet Barika Rastegar. They stay in her home and learn that Islamic fundamentalists have taken over Shazeb, Barika's home city. During the night, soldiers from Shazeb, in search of Loto and Haydn, invade Barika's house. Loto defeats them, and they camp outside in an isolated area. The next day, Barika attempts to smuggle Loto and Haydn out of the city but isn't allowed to drive due to Sharia Law forbidding women of that right. Thus, disguised as a boy, Loto takes the wheel and accidentally crashes Barika's van into city light. Shazeb's soldiers attempt to arrest them, but they escape. Barika takes them to Munahid, who is also a political revolutionary, and they come up with a plan that would enable them to flee the city. However, Munahid betrays them by kidnapping Haydn with the intent of turning him into Shazeb's mullah in exchange for a reward. Haydn cries out to Loto in time to catch her attention, and, with Barika, she follows him. Loto defeats Munahid, and the city's locals escort Barika, Loto, and Haydn out of Shazeb. Tilasm Saga Leaving Barika behind, Loto and Haydn arrive to Hafeza, a poor Islamic city nestled near the mountains. Overlooking the city is King Ingvar's Palace. While in the hotel room, Loto and Haydn bond over marijuana and jokes about the Bible. The Veruki then falls asleep on Haydn's chest, but when she wakes up, she berates him and reverts back to her cranky attitude towards him. While exploring the town, Haydn buys a motorcycle, yet as he is testing it out, Loto notices two thugs harassing an elderly couple. They steal a map and drive off into the desert. Loto coaxes Haydn into following them on his new motorcycle. They end up defeating all the thieves and recover the stolen map. Curious, Loto follows the map and discovers the Tilasm of Morality. She is immediately cursed to obey whoever she sees first after donning the magical object who happens to be Haydn. Unable to do anything that would conflict with Haydn's sense of morality, Loto scolds Haydn for not removing the tilasm from her forehead. He insists that keeping it on would teach her a lesson. The next day, Loto saves Haydn from falling off a camel, and a young blonde woman laughs at him for being a "damsel in distress." The woman introduces herself as Ursula, and Haydn becomes enamored by her. Leaving Loto behind, he spends the day and evening with this newcomer. Loto begins to feel bad about how she treated Haydn, so she beautifies herself in hopes that he'll be nicer to her. When she sees him with Ursula, she grows upset and runs off into the bad part of Hafeza where she is nearly raped by two men. She escapes and returns to the hotel. Haydn expresses how worried he was for her but still refuses to remove the tilasm. During the next day, Haydn is kidnapped by King Ingvar who wants to lure the wearer of the tilasm into his palace. Loto discovers his endangerment while digging for more information about the tilasm. She arrives to the palace on Haydn's motorcycle and knocks Ingvar unconscious. She finds Haydn trapped on the edge of a buttress and pulls him to safety. Ingvar appears and kicks her off the ledge. However, Loto is saved by the tilasm, which grew a pair of wings, enabling her to fly. It is revealed that her love for Haydn, the person who imprisoned her, broke the curse of the tilasm. She defeats King Ingvar with a double-kick to the groin that drove him out the window. Loto then confesses her love for Haydn but is rejected. Accompanied by Barika and Haydn, Loto journeys to Takshak, a slum ridden with brothels. She is heartbroken by Haydn's romantic distaste for her and skulks around the town alone. A brothel owner, Ajit, interested in ensnaring her into prostitution, attempts to trick her into following him into his faux restaurant. A journalist named Tory stops him and educates Loto about the dangers of sex trafficking. Somewhat enthralled by Tory, Loto returns to her hotel room only to discover that she is unable to sleep as Haydn has not returned from his day out alone; additionally, she is disturbed by the culture of misogyny that exists throughout the region. She decides to take down the most powerful brothel in Takshak. Once inside Ajit's abode, she is attacked by Takshak's Greed, a monstrous penis. She defeats the creature by spraying it with cold water. The prostitutes and slaves that she rescued, however, did not know what to do upon being free. When Loto returns to her hotel, Ursula appears and reveals to her that she is holding Haydn hostage in the woods. Loto fights with Ursula and eventually defeats her via Smudging Ceremony. Ursula later befriends Loto in an attempt to atone for her sins against her. Octagonian Oil Saga For several weeks, Loto lives with Haydn, Barika, and Ursula in his home while his parents are abroad for work. Loto discovers that the Octagon Kingdom wants to force her into selling off the Veruki Territory so that the more powerful nation can drill for oil on her homeland. Loto ignores the warnings in favor of distracting herself with shopping, parties, and romance. She attends a party with Haydn and the others and is discouraged by the lack of attention Haydn gives her. When his friends make racist comments about her, nonetheless, the missionary stands up for her and attacks two men who intend to rape Loto. Disgusted by his violence, Loto throws Haydn to the ground and scolds him for being aggressive. She expresses that the only reason Haydn is paying attention to her is because of her disempowerment, and this lack of power is what makes Haydn feel strong. Haydn, however, disagrees and reveals to her that he only wants to make up for all the times she rescued him. Throughout her time in Innes, Loto's mind drifts to the past. When she encounters a feather in Haydn's drawer--a feather that had once been attached to her extended tomahawk, she screams at Haydn and realizes that he was in her past. Her flashbacks reveal that she killed Adrian's comrade, who had raped her and her sister Nya. The slaying of the soldier led to a full-scale war against the Veruki Tribe. The Kingdom was driven out by Loto's leadership at the cost of the entire village, which was burned down by the enemy soldiers. During the battle, Adrian killed Posala in an act of revenge against Loto. Harboring unexpressed feelings for Adrian and confused by his actions against her own medicine woman, Loto falls apart and leaves the territory. She is discovered in the woods by a catatonic Haydn. Because her presence improved Haydn's condition, his family allows Loto to stay in their home. However, Haydn's mother, Sabrina, becomes suspicious of the Veruki, and she stumbles upon Loto and Haydn having sex. Loto is expelled from the house. As these memories surface, Loto realizes that she is not suited to lead the Veruki, and, while walking home from a date with one of Haydn's friends, she is taken by agents from the Bureau of Indigenous Affairs. She is then coerced into giving away the Veruki Territory to the Kingdom as Donovan Zhu, the head of the bureau, threatened to exterminate the entire tribe. He promised that nothing would happen to her people as long as the Kingdom was allowed to drill for oil in a few places. Loto is then beaten and imprisoned. Katsumi, however, rescues her and informs her that she plans to overthrow the Kingdom. Loto is convinced to journey to Shangri-La for special training. In despair over her actions, she leaves Innes and the Kingdom. Shangri-La Saga While at Shangri-La, Loto is rejected by the monastery's bodhissatva, Master Yatsen. He claims that women are only allowed to participate in the Buddhist faith as long as they are segregated. Loto feels that this is a hindrance on her training, so Yatsen says she can receive his training if she defeats his disciples. Loto defeats the first disciple, Jaroslav, and almost loses the second fight against Honon. However, she loses consciousness during the latter when the goddess Durga possesses her. It is later revealed that, while Loto was an infant on the verge of death, Durga took the life of Loto's mother in exchange for her own. Durga's energy, therefore, rests within Loto. One night, Loto grows upset with the secrets harbored by the monastery as well as Katsumi's detached attitude. She flees Shangri-La and encounters Haydn, who has been kidnapped by Lozen, her Amazonian half sister. Loto is defeated by Lozen because Haydn rejects her and claims that what she feels for him is not love but an unhealthy attachment. Dejected, Loto returns to the monastery where she speaks with the Dalai Lama. He tells her about her mother and that she must train her mind and find inner peace. Loto then grows determined to defeat Lozen, not by killing her, but through compassion and restraint. Later, Loto is pitted against Ming Zhu, a blind but quick Buddhist nun. She manages to defeat her by threatening her physical body while her astral body is disconnected. Having defeated the final disciple, Loto fights Yatsen and is immediately knocked out cold. When she awakens, she expects to be kicked out of the monastery, but Yatsen explains to her that her matches against the other monks was simply part of her training and that she had been accepted into Shangri-La all along. For the next couple of months, Loto trains with Katsumi, who is reluctant to teach her. At one point, Katsumi says she'll spend an evening with her in the town if Loto can stand on one leg for three hours. Although Loto accepts this challenge, Katsumi doesn't believe she'll be able to do endure it. With the help of the Dalai Lama, nonetheless, Loto is able to accomplish the task, and Katsumi begrudgingly joins Loto for a night in the town. While bathing in a hot springs resort, Loto enters Katsumi's bath unexpectedly and sees that Katsumi is transgender. Shocked and angry, Katsumi lashes out at Loto and flees. The Veruki, however, did not understand why Katsumi responded so defensively. At dawn, she returns to the monastery to see a badly injured Haydn asleep in one of the rooms. She wakes him up, and they argue over Haydn's role in defeating Lozen. Haydn refuses to be violent, but Loto is unwilling to allow Lozen to hurt him any longer. Lozen appears, and the two sisters begin to fight. At first, Loto appears to be winning until Lozen transforms into her true, heavily muscled form. She tosses Loto towards a tree, and Haydn catches her before impact. Feeling that he is acting chauvinistically, Loto admonishes him for endangering himself for the purpose of enhancing his masculinity. Haydn, however, says he does not want to see her as a disempowered woman. Instead, he wants to fight with her. Together, they fight Lozen, who continues to grow stronger, but they refuse to kill her. When Lozen is about to bludgeon them with the extended tomahawk, Yatsen and Katsumi intervene. Nya and Tory subsequently arrive and trick Lozen into wearing the tilasm. Enslaved by the powers of the object, Lozen is captured and taken to the Kingdom by Tory. Reunited with Haydn, Loto expresses her suspicions towards his sudden change of heart. Haydn explains that he has always loved her but wasn't secure enough with himself to commit to her. They leave Shangri-La together, with Loto still feeling unsure. Kingdom Saga Loco Arc Amazon Saga Genocide Saga=